The ringleader of a criminal organization that faked over a dozen car crashes enriched himself to the tune of $1.2 million thanks to a series of dangerous collisions on public streets, a Toronto court heard Friday.

Uthayakanthan “Mano” Thirunavukkarasu controlled a string of body shops, towing companies, physiotherapy clinics and bank accounts to orchestrate the scam, according to an agreed statement of facts read aloud in court.

He also recruited participants in the crime ring — as many as 40 — and instructed them in staging the collisions, lying to police, and filing fraudulent insurance claims.

The participants were usually offered around $2,000, while Thirunavukkarasu pocketed tens of thousands, court heard. Over two years, Thirunavukkarasu cashed cheques valued at $1,216,000.

Earlier this week, Thirunavukkarasu pled guilty to 17 charges related to 13 separate crashes that occurred in 2007. The charges included instructing a criminal organization, conspiracy, and fraud.

The scam bilked over $1.5 million from insurance companies, court heard, without calculating the cost of needlessly tying up emergency services.

One participant, however, suffered catastrophic brain damage after a staged crash went wrong. In May 2007, an accomplice was instructed to drive a van carrying five passengers into the middle of an east-end intersection. Everyone was supposed to exit the van before it was rammed by a tow-truck driven by another accomplice.

But the tow truck collided with the vehicle before anyone had exited, sending several of the passengers to hospital by ambulance. One sustained permanent brain injuries.

That collision alone bilked $444,000 from insurance companies, at least $42,600 of which went to the crime ring. Eleven other collisions on public streets occurred after the botched crash.

All of the staged collisions followed the same general pattern, court heard.

Thirunavukkarasu or an accomplice would cruise salvage yards looking for vehicles that had been written off as scrap after a legitimate accident. A mechanic would issue fraudulent documents saying the vehicle had been repaired, and a member of the organization would register and insure it.

Participants were either paid or promised to be cleared of debts if they would drive the vehicle into another and then make fraudulent property damage and injury claims with insurance companies. A series of physiotherapy clinics controlled by the organization would bolster those injury claims.

Police became suspicious after noticing a crashed vehicle had been driven only one kilometre since the previous crash.